I apply the principles of living systems to the work of organisational development and change. We call it ‘CultureWork – Working the Way Life Works’.
I design, facilitate and curate conversational processes that turn ‘systems thinking‛ into systems practice and take words like ‘collaborative leadership’ and ‘whole-system change’ off the page and into the room.
My focus is ‘the system’. The whole, not the parts. I focus on cultivating relationships because I believe that changing the way people meet, communicate and work together is the key catalyst for changing both organisational cultures and whole systems.
I’ve facilitated participative processes in organisations of all sizes and at every level of scale – from strategic planning with leadership teams to more than a thousand people across several continents.
I also write about these ideas to popularise this new paradigm. And I workshop living systems principles with groups of all kinds, to make this way of seeing accessible and relevant to people’s everyday work and life. By now I’ve presented living systems to many thousands of people, so I know firsthand that by making complex ideas simple, people can apply them in ways that change their lives.
I’ve also designed The Climate Action Sprint to support people to pivot their work towards a liveable world.
I have a primary degree in Communication Studies, a Masters in Responsibility and Business Practice and I’ve trained in multiple participative processes. On my professional journey – from film-making to internal communication to organisational development and whole-system work – I woke up to just how broken our organisations are. There are so many good people working inside organisational systems that are causing our polycrisis and blocking our path to the deep change we urgently need. So, Instead of propping up system failure, I went in search of a better way.
The paradigm-breaking insights of living systems completely changed my life. Because they don’t just challenge us to change. They offer us a way to change.
And for me, these are not just ideas. This is a way of seeing and being that’s deeply personal. Learning to see the world as a living system challenges each of us to play our part in this decisive moment and holds the key to any future worth having.
I believe that if we learn to work the way life works, we just might remake our world for the better.
I look forward to meeting this community. You can connect with me in the following ways:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-downey-b482971/
Website: https://culturework.ie/
Personal page: https://culturework.ie/paula-downey/
Writing: https://culturework.ie/essays/
Video essays: https://culturework.ie/video-essays/
The Climate Action Sprint: https://culturework.ie/the-climate-action-sprint/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzKd2XcEmU1eMSpqI1reoNQ
Book Chapter: https://culturework.ie/book-chapter/